Friday, October 24, 2014

In UNIT04 we turn our attention to the Applications of the Derivative. We developed the ideas behind Rolle's Theorem and the Mean Value Theorem as well as Optimization problems! We also learned how to program the TI nSpire CX CAS with TI-BASIC. We wrote a program to solve Quadratic Equations for practice. Then we wrote a function for Newton's Method for finding Roots!

NEW AP Calculus BC + nSpireSCREENCASTS: YouTube descriptions include links to code and notes if you need them.

Teaching Math 5H:

UNIT03

Quarter I Weeks 5&6 Differentiation Rules!

9/29/2014 - 10/10/2014

During these past couple of weeks we finished UNIT03 covering the Product, Quotient and Chain Rules. We finished by working with Implicit Differentiation. UNIT04 will cover applications of differentiation including the use of Implicit Differentiation in Related Rates problems. We'll also cover optimization!

NEW AP Calculus BC + nSpireSCREENCASTS: YouTube descriptions include links to code and notes if you need them.

Teaching Math 5H:

UNIT03

Quarter I Weeks 3&4 Differentiation Rules!

9/15/2014 - 9/26/2014

OK, let me go back to my weekly or biweekly summaries. The day by day summary is too time consuming to write and I think too tedious to read! So, this will be a 2 week

summary as this past week was quite short

(Thursday and Friday was Rosh Hashanah).

We finished UNIT02 on Limits and Continuity. Then we started UNIT03 on the Algebraic Rules of Differentiation. I think you will get a lot out of our new ScreenCasts (see below) featuring the TI nSpire CX CAS!

We also celebrated "The Great TI NSPIRE UnBoxing of 2014!" We unboxed and distributed 22 out of the 24 nSpires that were donated to our class. I'm still waiting on some calculator rental forms to give out the remaining 2 GCs. BTW, these are not really rental forms as no one pays a dime until the end of the year if the GC is lost or damaged (like a book card really). We are also waiting for a our DonorsChoose Project to be funded to get another 14 GCs! So, over the past several years we've upgraded our emulators from Hal and Colossus (VTI-83/89 and TIEMU-89) to Castiel (KARMTI-nSpire)!

NEW AP Calculus BC + nSpire SCREENCASTS: YouTube desciptions include links to handouts and notes if you need them.Here's an oldie but goodie featuring the TI-89. I was sick last week and could not re-record this ScreenCast, sorry.OK, I just recorded a new version of 302!

Teaching Math 5H:

UNIT02

Quarter I Week 2 Limits and Continuity!

9/8/2014 - 9/12/2014

MONDAY: Lesson 107 Functions vs Relations

We talked about graphing General Form Conic Sections by Completing The Square and using Polar Notation!TUESDAY: Lesson 201 1-Sided LimitsNow we look at Limits at Infinity and limits on either side of points of discontinuity.WEDNESDAY: Lesson 202 ContinuityNow we define Continuity and use the Intermediate Value Theorem. BTW, if it's September, YouTube Wednesday must include Tom Lehrer's New Math!THURSDAY: Lesson 202 ContinuityNothing new today, we just went over the homework in groups on our mini marker boards from http://whiteboardsusa.comFRIDAY: Lesson 203 Definition of f'(x)Finally, we defined the Derivative as the limit of the secant line slopes!NEW AP Calculus BC + nSpire SCREENCASTS: YouTube desciptions include links to handouts and notes if you need them.

TECHNOTE:If you are having trouble running KARMTI at home, you may need to reinstall the OS. Enter this line:/1=boot1.img /MXC /PB=boot2.img /PO=TI-NspireCXCAS-3.6.0.550.tcc /K4 /N /Rin(FILE)(BOOT OPTIONS)(COMMANDLINE)Then entermyFlash.binin(FILE)(SAVE FLASH AS)Then enter this line:/1=boot1.img /F=myFlash.bin /K4in(FILE)(BOOT OPTIONS)(COMMANDLINE)Then do(FILE)(EXIT)UPDATE: You may also have to goto (FILE)(SKINS) to enable a skin!The next time you run KARMTI, it should default to "/1=boot1.img /F=myFlash.bin /K4" using the new OS without you having to enter anything as it works in class. BTW, the new OS file "TI-NspireCXCAS-3.6.0.550.tcc" is already in the KARMTI folder I gave you. What we do in class requires OS 3.1 or greater, I'm using 3.6 OS. To get the latest TI nSPire CX CAS OS goto http://education.ti.com/en/us/home Good Luck!

Teaching Math 5H:

UNIT01+UNIT02

Quarter I Week 1 First Week Back!

9/1/2014 - 9/5/2014

I don't usually do a day by day rundown of the week, but here goes nothing!

MONDAY: Labor Day (nothing to report)TUESDAY: Superintendent's Conferences where we spent all day in meetings except for the last 2 hours of the day when we finally got to set up our rooms. I spent those 2 hours moving 100 textbooks, arranging and tweeking 25 PCs, finding 25 chairs and placing 6 tables. Then I found that my SSH server's RAID drive crashed, so I had to setup openSSH on an alternate server I used to have for FTP. That's OK since I don't need the FTP server much anymore. I use the SSH sever for my AP Computer Science students to login from home and finish their Java projects. I share files with my students through Edmodo. I upload my files on DropBox, SageCell and YouTube aka my cloud!WEDNESDAY: First Day of ClassesThe first day of every quarter starts with the "Ceremony Of The Seats" (new seating assignments). The students come into a dark room except for the PC monitors and the SmartBoard. On the SmartBoard I'm playing an MP3 of the sound track to "A Beautiful Mind" over VLC. Since this isn't an MP4, VLC adds some wild special effects on the SmartBoard so it's all cool. Then I walk to each seat and call each student using my SmartPhone as a flashlight as if I'm an usher in the Movie Theater. It's all very dramatic. Then we hand out books and book cards, go over the syllabus and fill out some biographical forms. Sorry, there's no instruction the first day of classes.YOUTUBE: Since it was Wednesday, after all, I had to show a FILK or two! So, at the end of the period I snuck in our own student made Frozen and then the infamous Mathmaticious!THURSDAY: Lesson 101 Intro to TI-nSpireFinally, we say goodbye to Hal (TI-89) and play around with the KARMTI emulator on each PC as we don't have all our TI nSpire CX CAS Graphing Calculators from DonorsChoose as yet. The students are still trying to get some FREE Google Gift Cards from Codecademy!TECH NOTE: I was ScreenCasting Lesson 101 from the front of the room at the SmartBoard using SmartNotebook with my USB Mic attached to the SmartBoard. This was all well and good until the keys on the emulator started sticking. So, I had to go to my PC in the back of the room to use a standard keyboard and mouse instead of the SmartBoard for input on the emulator.FRIDAY: Lesson 106 Implicit GraphsI used to do a whole UNIT1 on preCalculus Review. Now I just sneak in a few of those lessons before UNIT2 on Limits. These UNIT1 Lessons are mainly an intro to the calculator and review of a bit of Algebra and Trig. We play around with Function, Parametric, DiffEqu and Polar modes all in the first few days of class!TECH NOTE: I was ScreenCasting Lesson 106 from the back of the room at my PC with the USB Mic attached to the PC to fix the problems I listed in the last technical note. I still had a problem late in the ScreenCast when xournal, the pen app I was using, started drawing random lines all over the SmartBoard whenever I put the stylus down on my tablet. I was using xournal instead of SmartNotebook and a DROID Tablet over WiFi instead of the SmartBoard like the old days when all I had was a PC Projector. Maybe I'll try using SmartNotebook with the Tablet on Monday to see if that's a bit better. The problem with this setup is that when I use SmartNotebook with aconv, my ScreenCaster, and SplashTop (to connect the tablet over WiFi) then SmartNotebook is a bit laggy.UPDATE: Today is Monday and I recorded ScreenCast 107 as above. I got a lot of lag between writing with the stylus and seeing what I wrote on SmartNotebook. So, I moved every thing back up front next to the SmartBoard. I attached an extra USB keyboard and USB mouse as well as the USB Mic directly to the SmartBoard. Luckily there's 3 USB ports! So, Tuesday I'll record ScreenCast 201 from the front of the room using the SmartBoard with SmartNotebook which worked well the first day (101). When I need to use the nSpire emulator, I can now use the keyboard and mouse at the front of the room to avoid the sticky keys! Neither will I need SpalshTop nor the Tablet. I still have the standard keyboard and mouse on the teacher/smartboard PC at the back of the room.NEW AP Calculus BC + nSpire SCREENCASTS: YouTube desciptions include links to handouts and notes if you need them.

Teaching Math 5H:

Hal Must Die - No More TI-89!

Quarter I Week 0 August Preparation

AP Calculus BC is switching gears this year. We're leaving our TI-89s behind for the first time in 20 years! We will go forth and conquer with our new TI nSpire CX CAS Graphing Calculators! We've been running project after project on Donorschoose and nearly have a class set of nSpires to loan out. We used to call the TI-89 "Hal," hence the title of this post: Hal Must Die - No More TI-89! It shouldn't be a tough transition, however, as the 89 and the nSpire are very similar Computer Algebra Systems aka CAS. However, the nSpire has a nicer color, hi-res, bright interface and a document system to save our work. It also has the LUA programming environment, but I think we'll stick to TI-BASIC when writing programs for Calculus class!Whenever I change textbooks or technology, I have to rerecord the course for YouTube. So, I'll record AP Calculus BC all over again with a bunch of new screencasts featuring the nSpire! This was the first course I ever recorded, so it's about time.Here's a taste of the nSpire (not my video):

OLD SITES

OLD STATCOUNTER

OLD CALCPAGE MISSION STATEMENT

The Calculus & Computer Science Archive ProjectOnline Since 1988

This site is here to help new and experienced teachers alike. Over the years I have developed many materials for several courses that I teach regularly. I have taught AP Computer Science since 1987, College Math since Fall 1993 and AP Calculus since 1994.

These materials have been edited and re-edited for ease of use in the classroom every time I have a chance to teach these courses. I have had many requests to share my materials at the conferences I frequent, whence this website.